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The Great Migration
The Great Migration was the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans fro the rural South to the cities of the North, midwest and West. The economic motivations for migration were a combination of the desire to escape oppressive economic conditions in the south and the promise of greater prosperity in the north. The Great Migration had a huge impact on urban life in the United States. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was one of America's greatest businessmen. In 1903 he established the Ford Motor Company. Ford developed the assembly line and conveyor belt to speedup motor production. -
1st Red Scare
"Red Scare" is the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. The 1st red scare was about a worker revolution. The 1st Red Scare began shortly after the end of WWI. -
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey was the most popular black nationalist leader of the early twentieth century, and the founder of the United Negro Association (UNIA). Garvey sought to end imperialist rule and create modern societies in Africa. He advanced a Pan-African philosophy which inspired a global mass movement, known as Garveyism. -
Frances Willard
Frances E. Willard was the leader of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Willard promote the cause of women and reform as a pioneer educator. She was the most prominent leader of the movement to end alcohol abuse. -
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley was the nickname given to a street where many music publishers worked in the early 1920s. "Tin Pan" refers to the sound of pianos furiously pounded by the so-called song pluggers. This street was where the American popular music industry began. -
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism was the belief that the weaker less capable should be weak and poor while the strong should be given good wealth. The movement was named after Charles Darwin, a naturalist who theorized that organisms develop through the natural selection of small variations. -
Jazz Music
The jazz age was a cultural movement where new styles of music and dance emerged. Jazz Music exploded as popular entertainment in the 1920s and brought African-American culture to the white middle class. Jazz music had a profound effect on the literary world, which can be illustrated through the genesis of the genre of jazz poetry. -
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was the most influential movement in African American literary history. The movement was know for its proliferation in art, music, and literature. Harlem became the center of a "spiritual coming of age." -
Prohibition
Prohibition was the prevention by law of the manufacture and sale of alcohol, especially in the US between 1920 and 1933. The 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. In 1933, Congress proposed the 21st Amendment to congress, which repealed the 18th Amendment. -
Warren G. Harding ("Return to Normalcy")
Warren G. Harding was elected as the 29th U.S. president. Harding won the election after promising a "return to normalcy" after the hardships of WWII. To republicans, "return to normalcy" meant a return to big business. -
Tea Pot Dome Scandal
The tea pot dome scandal began during the administration of president Harding. The tea pot dome scandal is also known as the Oil Reserves scandal. The scandal surrounded the secret leasing of federal oil reserves. -
The Scopes Monkey Trial
John Thomas Scopes was a young high school science teacher who taught the theory of evolution in violation of Tennessee state law. Scopes was found guilty , but the verdict was thrown out on a technicality. The act that forbade teaching the theory of evolution was repealed in 1967. -
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow was the lawyer for the Scopes Trial. Darrow was at the top of his profession and the most famous attorney in America. The Scopes Trial brought him even greater notoriety, -
William Jennings Bryan
Bryan campaigned for peace, prohibition and suffrage, and increasingly criticized the teaching evolution. Bryan helped Woodrow Wilson secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912, and served as Wilson's secretary of state until 1914. Bryan joined the prosecution in the trial of John scopes in 1925. -
Langston Hughes
In 1926 Langston Hughes published his first book. Hughes was an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance. -
Charles A. Lindbergh
In 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh became one of America's early celebrity heroes. Lindbergh piloted his first monoplane on the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Although other pilots had crossed the Atlantic before him, he was the first person to do it alone. -
Stock Market Crash "Black Tuesday"
During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market underwent rapid expansion. On October 29, 1929, panicked sellers traded nearly 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Black Tuesday is known as the beginning of the Great Depression. -
20th Amendment
The Congress shall assemble at least one in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.